Saving For The Holidays

This is a quick simple hub for those that get into crunch time around the holidays.  I am sure allot of us have been there, trying to decide on who gets what for Xmas and how much you plan on spending.    

So since this Xmas is just about over, its time to start planning for next year, yes next year.  The quickest easiest way to save for next year is to start a bank account for the holidays next year.  Do not get a debit/savings card for that account just make deposits to it weekly, monthly, or every payday.   Commit to this and the holidays will be more festive and less stress full.  Lots of places may even offer special holiday accounts where they transfer funds from your main checking account into a special account that you cannot touch or risk early penalties which will deter you from withdrawing the funds.  Places locally here like Watermark Credit Union, and other credit unions around this great state of Washington offer such accounts.  Can you image next year if you are actively saving and when the holidays come like Black Friday and you do not have to worry about if you have enough to cover the car payment, the house payment, or any other payment???

Or even better you can save on the credit card bills by saving monthly and using cash that you actually saved up.  Now that's a concept!    Yes it might be difficult and things do come up during the year that you must pay for, but always look at the big picture.  Especially if you have children like I do, saving for a rainy day is always helpful, but saving for the big holidays will make the time spent during the holidays more valuable.  More time planning all the proper gifts you wish to purchase and share, than deciding on which bills you are going to put off to pay until January.

So take a moment to contact your local bank or credit union, or open up an online account at the numerous web based institutions like ING Direct, or Ally Bank and various others.  Your sanity and stress level will thank you later.